AFRICAN ONLINE BUSINESS

TOGERTHER WE CAN GO FURTHER

OUR SERVICE

ABOUT AFRICA ONLINE - Africa Online is the preferred premium provider of Internet services on the African continent. Our in-country customer support departments provide quick turnaround after-sales support and service to our customers. Our highly trained personnel visit and guide customers through any potential problems and provide assistance in selecting new services as the customer’s needs grow. The customer support teams works closely with the local technical departments to ensure successful implementation of our service to every customer. .

OUR MISSION & CORE VALUES

Key to our success as a customer-centric organization operating in a challenging and dynamic environment is our strong belief and adherence to our mission statement and core values. As an organization, Africa Online employees are constantly focused on achieving our mission through engendering our core values in every task that we undertake. MISSION STATEMENT To be the preferred premium provider of communication solutions in Africa CORE VALUES We seek to be “the preferred premium provider of communication solutions in Africa” and in order to achieve this we believe:

Afrca online bussiness: in ideas over hierarchy - where we always search for and apply the best ideas regardless of their source that our values are our culture, that our people are our most valuable asset, and that we are passionate about our business that we are intolerant of bureaucracy, that as a meritocracy we recruit and promote only on the basis of merit and recognising equal opportunity, and that we insist on excellence and integrity that we are constantly learning in an environment of “stretch”, excitement, informality, challenge and trust and where we embrace change and diversity that we are passionately focused on customer delivery and quality, viewing our processes through our customers eyes ... constantly adapting ... and using this to accelerate growth that we reward improvements and celebrate results in an environment of respect for one another that we consistently demonstrate the four cornerstones of Africa Online leadership ... the energy that comes from being passionate about our business, the competitive drive that comes from being passionate about winning; the motivation skills to lead others; and the consistent delivery of results. Our business is all about passion, excitement, and learning.

OUR HISTORY

Africa Online was founded by three young Kenyan entrepreneurs, Ayisi Makatiani, Karanja Gakio and Amolo Ng’weno in Cambridge, Massachusetts in early 1994 with the vision of connecting the continent to the rapidly expanding Internet. Operating out of Cambridge, the company began by offering subscribers a distributed African news service via e-mail. The growth period began with the establishment of our first small office in Nairobi, Kenya in 1995. Since then, the company has grown to become the preffered Premuim service provider in the continent, with operations in nine African countries. Africa Online began offering services in Kenya from February 1995 managed at the time by Amolo Ng’weno. Early services consisted of a store and forward e-mail service as well as the first generation Web site, www.africaonline.com, hosted on servers in Boston. This site was well received as the first dynamic site covering Africa on the Web, winning an award from Global Network Navigator, now part of America Online, within three weeks of its launch.

In November 1995, the founding directors sold Africa Online to Prodigy Inc., the fourth-largest ISP in the United States at the time. The acquisition was part of Prodigy’s strategy to expand into new markets outside the US. Under the terms of the sale, the founders of Africa Online received shares in Prodigy Inc, in exchange for their shares in Africa Online, and continued to manage the business. Africa Online, along with Prodigy China, formed the International Division at Prodigy.

In 1996, Africa Online expanded its services to Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and launched its full Internet services in Kenya. In 1997, the company launched operations in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. By the end of 1997, however, Prodigy had been bought by a Mexican investment group which was interested in disposing of the International division.

In October 1998, the Africa Online management company, TelCorp, and African Lakes PLC established Africa Online Holdings Ltd, a holding company that acquired Africa Online from Prodigy Inc. TelCorp secured a management contract on the basis of which shareholders continued to manage and grow Africa Online. African Lakes held a convertible loan investment in Africa Online Holdings at this time.

The African Lakes investment in Africa Online allowed for several key acquisitions which enhanced the geographic coverage and service offering to clients. These included the acquisition of Pipex Internet Solution Swaziland (PTY) in June 1999, Kenya’s second largest ISP, Net2000 Limited in January 2000, UUNET Namibia’s dial-up subscriber base in April 2000 and Swift Global Uganda, Uganda’s second largest ISP in the same month. In March 2001, African Lakes acquired Africa Online from TelCorp and embarked on a restructuring which saw the company focus on various core operating units.

Since then, Africa Online has grown from strength to strength, consolidating its core business around all forms of Internet solutions. With its expansive reach across the African continent and its numerous strategic relationships with affiliate partners in non-present countries, Africa Online is able to provide customers with a wide range of products and services to suit any Internet communication need. Contact the Africa Online office nearest to you to see how we can satisfy your Internet and data communication requirements

Africa Online’s strength lies in the commitment and dedication of our people. As a service-based company, our teams have employed proven customer management methodologies that are customer-centered with the aim of delivering an unparalleled customer experience. We have invested significantly in training and development programs for our employees at all levels to ensure that the best quality of service is delivered to our customers. Africa Online’s open culture allows, and the teamwork and spirit that it creates, allows for the realization of our mission and core values.

enior Management Team

While geographically dispersed, the senior management team of Africa Online operates very closely as a virtual team, living and working in Nairobi, Cairo and London. The team is responsible for the delivery of operating objectives at the group level and providing support and services to the country operations.

Prince McNelly, Chief Executive Officer

Nelly was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Africa Online on [DATE needs to be updated], though he has been with the holding company, The African Lakes Corporation as Chief Operating Officer since June 1999.Prior to this she was the Finance Director and Acting Operations Director of the casino division of Ladbroke Group plc (now Hilton Group plc), Group Finance Director of Brothwicks plc and Group Finance Director and Company Secretary of Rage Software plc. Lesley holds an Masters degree from Oxford University and is based in London, UK.

Jacob colma, Group Finance Director

A Tanzanian national, colman joined the group in October 1998 and spent his first 6 months in Nairobi working at Africa Online. He was appointed Group Finance Director in 2004. Before this he was the West African Financial Co-ordinator at Schlumberger working between London and Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Based in London UK, Paul holds a Bachelors degree in Social Science and Economic from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. mmanuel was appointed to the position of Chief Technology Officer at Africa Online in November 2002. Prior to this, George was the Technical Manager of Global Data Broadcasting Company (GDBC), a Cairo-based satellite communications company. Prior to GDBC, George worked as a Senior Systems Engineer with United Communications (I-SkySat), also in Cairo. George holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Sadat Academy for Management Science in Cairo, Egypt. George is based in Cairo and is married with one son.

Mil u Mrosso Deogratius, Group Head of Human Resources el, Chief Technology Officer

Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Deogratius is the Group Communications and Human Resources Manager at Africa Online since late 2001. Prior to this, Gunnar has held a number of positions with Africa Online since 1997, including Divisional Manager, General Manager and Corporate Manager, Special Projects. Gunnar holds an M.A. degree in Regional Planning and Resource Development from the University of Waterloo in Canada and has a B.A. degree from McGill University also in Canada. Gunnar is currently pursuing an MBA with an employee relations specialization from the University of Leicester in the UK. He is married with one daughter.

Sulley Stanley, Head of Pan-Africa Business

sulleyl joined Africa Online Mombasa in January 1998 as a Major Accounts Manager selling high value network solutions to customers on in Kenya's Coast Province. He rose rapidly in the operation to head the department as the Sales and Marketing Manager in August 1999 and then was promoted to the Operations Manager position in June 2000. Suhayl was elevated to the General Manager position in Mombasa, a position held from October 2000 to March 2003. With a restructuring of Africa Online's Kenya operations, sulley has taken up the post of General Manager at Africa Online Tanzania from March 2003. Prior to joining Africa Online, Suhayl was a Network Systems Engineer with Icon Consultants in London. Sulley holds a B.Eng honours degree from the University of Warwick, UK and is currently pursuing an MBA at the same institution. Sulley is married with two daughters.